Ted Cruz Calls Mitch McConnell a Liar on Senate Floor

You just don’t see this in the U.S. Senate. Or you didn’t, before Ted Cruz got there. And frankly it’s about time someone called Mitch McConnell out for the crap he pulls.

The subject is the Export-Import Bank, and Cruz asked McConnell point blank to tell him if a deal had been cut to achieve a sneaky re-authorization of Ex-Im, and McConnell told him, “There is no deal, there is no deal, there is no deal.”

As Cruz puts it, “Like Saint Peter, he repeated it three times.”

McConnell lied. That’s not a surprise. McConnell is a liar. And one of the reasons he lies so unrepentently is that it goes against the culture of the Senate for any senator to publicly call him out for it. The Senate is a genteel body and everyone pretends that everyone else is their wonderful and good friend. Cruz doesn’t care. Cruz tells us publicly here that McConnell lied to him – and not just once. Worse: He compares him to Harry Reid.

Cruz doesn’t even stop with calling McConnell a liar. He goes on to blister “empty show votes” like one to repeal ObamaCare that McConnell went ahead with even though everyone knew the outcome.

By the way, in the course of letting McConnell have it here, Cruz demonstrates that he understands the workings of the Senate pretty well and isn’t fooled when McConnell puts on a show of doing things when he is really doing something else – particularly the way McConnell abuses his status as Senate Majority Leader to essentially snuff out any other senator’s amendments, even as he promises he would never do such a thing.

This. Is. War. I know the D.C. establishment hates Cruz because he refuses to play ball, but he’s never let loose like he does here. And it’s awesome. He obviously doesn’t care because he obviously is the rare politician who went to Washington to shine a light on what really happens there rather than get along by going along.

I already had a favorable impression of Cruz. It’s a lot more favorable after this. Oh, and you’re one of those Republiicans who still supports Mitch McConnell, by all means, explain that.